Bremanger

Before boarding the ship, we had to attend a “Saftey briefing” in which we were played a DVD about safety onboard. The first half covers why washing hands is important, followed by methods for hand washing (including an excruciating montage of shots on the topic of “things you touch with hands, whilst on a ship).

Shortly after we got underway, the public address called English speaking passengers to a meeting in the ships conference room. We arrived a few minutes ahead of time to find the room neatly filling up from the front; naturally Chris grabbed a seat in the back row causing me to remind him that “its not a physics lecture” (a subject traditionally imparted to persons in the back row of lecture theatres). As more and more of our fellow passengers filed in we noted that Chris and I were decidedly outside of the typical demographic; much silver hair was on display and I doubt that any other passenger in the room was under 50 years of age. Even so as I struck up conversation with the lady who had taken up the seat next to me, we seemed to be accepted as “seasoned travellers”. I dispensed sagely advice as to the best means of travelling to Bergen, and how one may obtain the best prices for such a journey. Soon the briefing began, as the usual operations of the ship, including a reminder that it isn’t a cruise ship and does take on cargo etc. When it came time for questions, a stream of fairly obvious queries were raised, until that is Chris raised his hand. Rather than reply herself, to Chris’s question the information officer called the Captain on the bridge and obtained an answer from him; surly the hallmark of an excellent question.

The cabin on the ship was compact, with each bed folding into the wall, but comfortable none the less. Prior to the trip I had been unable to secure a cabin with a porthole as none were available, so we were pleased to find that our room did indeed have a porthole, albeit with a restricted view, between two life boats.

Upon leaving Bergen we, naturally, started logging the GPS position of the ship using the GPS receiver in Chris’s mobile. As we sailed on into the sunset though we realised we had made a fatal error; we were logging data points too frequently. Note to future self; next time set to log based on time intervals not, rather than distance ones.

We had a pasta salad that we had prepared in the kitchen at the YMCA for dinner, as meals aboard the Hurtgruten ships are eye-wateringly expensive (approximately £120 for two of us to have dinner). Our meal, whilst frugal was tasty and came with that added sense of “we beat the system”, which British people seem to love so much

Later we headed to the almost deserted polar lounge to make the rough notes that would, eventually, become this journal entry. The quiet was broken only by the music drifing through from the adjacent piano lounge. We wouldn’t have minded, had he chosen better songs, but the the choices seemed very much aimed at the previously mentioned silver haired demographic. Interesting selections included: Hotel California, Raining men, ABBA’s mama mia, and Deliliah (including what I took to be an attempt to impersonate Sir Tom Jones’ patented accent).

It is important to note that although they are definitely a fixture on the tourism scene, and the majority of passengers are on the 12 day round trip “cruise”, the Hurtigruten are not cruise ships. At each port the ships load (and unload) cars, cargo, day passengers and new passengers taking up berths; ferrying them up and down the Norwegian coast. Calls at ports are very much unlike those associated with a cruise. Typically the ship is in port for between 10 and 30 minutes. Longer stops are reserved for the largest of Norway’s towns and citys. The ships operate in an unbroken chain; each ship departs from Bergen at 20:00 in the evening, and heads north to Kirkenes at which point it makes an about face and steams south for Bergen. With 12 vessels operating this 12 day circuit, each of the ports between Bergen and Kirkenes (with only one exception) has one north bound and one southbound departure every 24 hours.

We were up early to take breakfast in the ship’s restaurant; early enough to watch the ship dock at the tiny town of Torvik from our table. Considering the size of the vessel, it was astounding how it managed to perform a pirouette as it docked. Evidently these ships are equipped with bow thrusters, allowing them to manoeuvre nimbly. Once again the appearance of fish on the breakfast buffet surprised me, but was not unwelcome.

Later in the morning, we made our way onto the sundeck, for the ship’s docking at Ålesund. Ålesund had recieved quite a high billing from Lonley Planet, however in the chilly and dull morning the most striking thing was the sound of the ships horn, which blew thrice as we approached the town. After the third hoot, the sound reverberated off the mountains amongst which the town nestles. The sensation was quite eerie; the sounds of being in a cave, but with sky.

On departing Ålesund, Chris and I headed below to prepare for approaching disembarkation at Geiranger, but hurried through this necessary chore motivated by the knowledge that we were headed into one of the most scenic parts of the route. As we sailed through the fjords Chris said that “Dan, I know this is a strong statement but, on balance, I think this is better than the Diablo III open beta weekend”. High praise indeed.

After a few hours of sailing, we were entering the Geiranger fjord; often billed as one of the most beautiful sights in Norway (and at other times as one of the most beautiful sights in the world). We braved the wind, to stand on the front of the ship as she navigated the fjord. The channel seemed narrow, but the mountains at its perimeter, rising well over a kilometre above us, destroyed all ability to recon scale and distance.

We had decided to leave our first ship at Geiranger. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and a place of extraordinary natural beauty.Read more